OLD WHITEHALL PALACE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4188, 24 May 1939, Page 10

OLD WHITEHALL PALACE

A SIXTEENTH CENTURY EMBANKMENT. Interesting traces of old river walls and landing places have been brought to light during excavations on the site of part of old Whitehall Palace. Records going back to the 12th century show the site as occupied by the houses of rich noblemen, but Whitehall Pallace, formerly known as York Place, is primarily associated with Wolsey who spent an enormous amount of money on it. The buildings and courtyards by the river covered an area of 23 acres as compared with only 6 at Hampton Court, Wolsey’s other Thameside palace. The only part of the old palace known to have survived, apart from Inigo Jones’s banqueting hall, was the King’s Wine Cellar which will be preserved in the new Government offices which are to be built on the site. The remains of paved floors and foundations of parts of an earlier building later incorporated in the Tudor palace have recently been discovered. Among the most interesting of the new discoveries are a paved passage leading to the Queen’s Stairs and an early embankment wall of Kentish ' ragstone. Two masonry platforms, dating from about 1515, project over what used to be the Thames foreshore where the noblemen’s gilded barges lay at rest. Another river wall with six semicircular bastions on the river side, built by Henry VIII, has also come to light. This second wall was 50 ft. in advance of the earlier one, but 300 ft. behind the present embankment, wall, and is known to extend as far as Richmond Terrace.

The last alteration before the palace was destroyed in 1698 was a terrace garden designed by Wren for Queen Mary. It was 280 ft. long with curved flights of steps at both ends leading down to the water. These steps have now been uncovered. A stone pier used for the purpose of boarding the State barges has also been discovered. Photographs and detailed records of the discoveries are being kept, and it is hoped that the steps and river wall of Queen Mary’s Terrace may be preserved.